General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRaise Social Security Wage Base to $400,000
Yesterday, the 2013 Social Security Wage Base has increased to $113,700, an increase of $3,600 from the 2012 wage base of $110,100 AND the FICA percentage went back up by 2%.
Since $400,000 is OBVIOUSLY the new middle class, shouldn't the "wage base" go up to $400,000?
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)But they'll never do it. Double standards. Same ole same ole.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)That was not all that hard a few years ago, when I started it was like 2K something a year, heh. Even so, It took a lot of overtime to top that amount.
Hey, if this is howthey want to define it, I say go for it.
Ganja Ninja
(15,953 posts)If anything a cap is bassackwards thinking. The rich should be subsidizing the SS taxes of the poor. There should be a floor where if you make less than a certain amount your social security account is credited for the first $10,000 of your income and nothing comes out of your pocket. As it stands now the poor are paying for tax cuts for the rich.
indepat
(20,899 posts)trillion in increased tax revenues, but got only $600 billion. Senators Alexander (R-TN) and Corker (R-TN) insist on a trillion dollars cut in social security, Medicare, and Medicaid as a condition to authorizing a $1 trillion increase in the Federal debt limit.
beardedcollie
(5 posts)Why is the wage base for SS not part of the discussion to fix things? I think the last time it was raised was in the 80s. IS that right?
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)as benefits are tied to contributions.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)dkf
(37,305 posts)And the rate was raised for incomes above $200k/$250k in the ACA.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)DollarBillHines
(1,922 posts)I don't think any of them pays any SS. None of us receives actual paychecks. I have never paid a cent to SS. I am 60 years old and I have never worked for a paycheck. I will take my chances on my own.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)We have additional revenue demands to make any cutting 1 to 1.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)No Compromise
(373 posts)minimum wage needs to go up to at least $30 bucks per hour...
(I agree with you by the way)
DebbieCDC
(2,543 posts)Millions and millions of people just like me who are WAAAAY below the new $400 K middle class cutoff will now see our take-home pays reduced by $50-100 per paycheck starting this month. I have to work two jobs as it is to make up for all the ground I've lost in the 4 years my company has given NO raises.
Yeah great deal for the used-to-be middle class
dkf
(37,305 posts)Cut the contributions and you will receive less when you retire.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)This chart shows why that's necessary: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022118509
Look at the line for income from $200,000 to $500,000.
Pryderi
(6,772 posts)Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)Our thing is to take whatever it is the GOP wants and then fight for slightly less. We want low taxes for the wealthy, just not as low as the GOP wants. We wants cuts to safety net and entitlement programs, but not as large as the GOP desires. We want eternal war, but one at a time is enough for us. And so it goes.
The forums yesterday had plenty of posts talking about how a quarter or half million a year isn't all that much money. Why, that's barely scraping by. That's the nouveau left, and until you walk a mile in their thousand dollar Gucci shoes, don't judge their struggle. Poverty is declasse.
Hell, the white house doesn't even talk about the poor anymore. They no longer exist. Poor people -- the one in four kids in poverty, the one in five children who will go to bed tonight without food, the Walmart worker making $7 an hour before taxes -- they aren't poor. They are, in the White House's words: "Struggling to become middle class."
I don't think it has to be this way, but until we say no more this is how it's going to be. The White House thinks the Walmart worker can afford a tax hike, and the investment banker pulling down $399,000 a year cannot.
DCKit
(18,541 posts)SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)and extend it to ALL "income" not just income paid on a paycheck
dkf
(37,305 posts)I wonder how the public would feel if they saw $1,000,000 social security incomes.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)That said, the point is somewhere, and we pay enough actuaries that we could find it pretty quickly, and there's no reason not to push it up to that point.